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Background: There is an increasing global demand for higher education to incorporate flexible delivery. Nursing education has been at the forefront of developing flexible online education and offering programs 'anywhere and anytime'. In response to calls to teach compassion in nursing education, there is an abundance of literature concerning classroom teaching, but few online studies.

The international literature describes a variety of frameworks and competence indicators used by regulatory authorities to safeguard the public. In the 5 years since the NCNZ implemented the CCF less than 0.02% of notifications related to 'competence' have been recorded. The majority of NZ nurses believe that the CCF provides a mechanism to ensure nurses are competent and fit to practice. However, it is important to note that CCF processes may infer competence but they are not a guarantee that a nurse is safe to practice on any given day.

Definitions of continuing competence within legislation and health professional regulation across developed nations have strong similarities. The need for continuing competence frameworks is generally agreed by regulatory authorities to be necessary to protect the safety of the public. However, regulatory processes that monitor the maintenance, assessment and development of continuing competence in nursing practice need to be overt, structured and well communicated in order to engage nurses, promote confidence in professional practice and protect the health and safety of members of the public.